[1][4] In Folwell's first season, Washington & Jefferson held the legendary scorer Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians to a scoreless tie.

That season featured a scoreless tie of Yale, a 100–0 defeat of Grove City College, and a 17–0 victory over Penn State that broke the Nittany Lions' 19-game winning streak, earning the entire school a day off to celebrate.

Sportswriter Walter S. Trumbull of The New York Sun suggested that the Michigan Aggies, Washington & Jefferson, Chicago University, and Notre Dame were the new "Big 4 of College Football" instead of the traditional grouping of Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Penn.

[8] Folwell was the 17th head football coach at the United States Naval Academy and he held that position for five seasons, from 1920 until 1924.

He coached the Atlantic City Roses of the Eastern League of Professional Football in 1927, but was forced to retire to his farm in New Jersey after one season.

[1] A hip infection, which began while he was coaching the Philadelphia Quakers, worsened, forcing him to walk with a cane.